Unusual Behaviour?

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by glsammy

I didn't do anything that anyone else wouldn't have tried to do.

Spoken like a true wildlife photographer, the distance you are talking about is more than exceptable & given the fact that you were in plain sight & on a very public reserve I can't see a problems.

In my opinion it only becomes a problem when your presence intrudes on & disrupts the subjects natural behaviour, and in my experience you have to be extremely close in most cases for this to happen.
Experienced wildlife photographers always put the targets welfare first, and having seen loads of your excellent images I certainly include you in this bracket pal.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Helen

Hi Sammy

Nothing gives at all, at least not that I'm aware of

I made the comment directly as a result of you admitting you caused the break up by "tryng to get too close".

And I will make the comment again to anyone that admits they "tried to get too close".

Cheers.

Can I suggest you ascertain the full situation before making such comments?
If you were in my position, wouldn't you try and get closer? The birds were in full control of the situation, i.e. they can fly away whenever they like! I was on a public footpath that dozens of other photographers and general public use every day. Most of the public couldn't give a dam about the birds and would have simply continued on until they flew away. My "trying to get too close" was in the context of photography, I never stood a chance to get nearer than 80 yards or so. I could have understood your comments more if the images were close ups, but you can clearly see I've had to stretch every bit of resolution to get anything like a decent image.
I can take it then that you've never had the situation where you've seen a bird in the distance, taken a few pictures, then moved slowly forward to try and get a better picture, the bird flies away and the moments gone. Of course you have, we all have or we wouldn't have any images to put on the web site.
I shall have to be very careful and factually accurate with my descriptions in future. I was simply trying to get over in print the excitement of the moment.
For some reason you think me capable of charging forward without a care for the birds scaring them away, something I would never do.

[StuartDH]

I agree with glsammy, whilst it's easy enough to get too close that you might spook a bird and it flies off to another perch, you're probably never really close enough to cause it any distress or affect it's welfare.

In fact, in the past, I've even climbed trees to get better photos of an owl and, despite only being 30ft away, the owl never showed any of signs of distress. Last week I was out in the Peaks where a Robin was so comfortable with us being around that he sat just a couple of feet away and stayed there for 5 minutes.

Each occasion is different and as long as you don't chase birds around the park or stick your lens in their nest, you can usually get quite close without causing any harm.

It's a fair comment from Helen as some general advice for anyone who goes out taking pictures of birds, but on this occasion I don't think it really applies as glsammy's pics are obviously taken from quite a distance. I'm just gutted that I wasn't standing next to him when he took the pics

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by StuDH

It's a fair comment from Helen as some general advice for anyone who goes out taking pictures of birds, but on this occasion I don't think it really applies as glsammy's pics are obviously taken from quite a distance. I'm just gutted that I wasn't standing next to him when he took the pics

Thanks for your comments, you would have been thrilled as me and my wife were.
I think I've said enough now.